Guilty

A few hours after I heard the verdict of "guilty" and let it sink in – that a former president of the United States is now a convicted felon – it occurred to me that Donald Trump still could trade in the words "former president" for the words "the president."

Yes, even though he was unanimously found guilty by a jury of his peers Thursday afternoon of altering business records to influence the 2016 election, he is still eligible to run as the supposed Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States. 

 Eugene Debs actually did that in 1920, running for president from his jail cell and winning 3.4 percent of the vote as the Socialist Party candidate. So there is precedent for that black hole in our Constitution. Makes you wonder why that flaw in the electoral system – that a convict could run for president – wasn't corrected back then.

Probably because there was no Internet.

I want to know who the 3.4 percent of the electorate were. How irresponsible were those voting for a convicted felon who was found guilty of – wait for it – insurrection. You can't make this stuff up. Maybe we're in some kind of a weird 100-year cycle, I don't know.

Trump will be sentenced on July 11, just a few days before the Republican nominating convention. You can believe there will be more spinning going on that week than you ever saw in Olympic figure skating. Even now, Republicans are irresponsibly denigrating the very democracy they are hoping control, reacting as if Trump's trial was a sham. It's dangerous, pathetic and scary all at once when you consider that the rule of law is the backbone of our democracy.

Trying to spin Trump's guilty verdict as something positive for his campaign illustrates what a clown show the GOP has become. The MAGA Republican response to the verdict, made up mostly of conservative Republican law makers seeking to become his vice president, is abominable and decidedly un-American. They should be ashamed of themselves. They are not. They are Constitutional ignoramuses who were given a responsibility to all of us and chose to ignore it.

And it's liable to get worse.

Trump has already indicated that he will appeal the verdict, but that appeal won't even be heard, much less decided, before his inauguration should he win in November.

It was brought to my attention that if Trump does win the presidency this November, he'll be reporting to a parole officer. It got me to thinking: a parole officer could limit Trump's travel if he or she sees fit. Ha. How does that work for setting international policy? The PO might need their own office in the White House. Would Trump report to his PO weekly? Daily?

Because it's a state case – the trial was held in New York – and not a federal case, I wonder if Trump even has the ability to overrule parole as president? He probably thinks he does. He'll probably try, even though Republicans are big on states rights at the moment. And if he fails to overrule parole, he'll probably take it to the Supreme Court. You know, the upside down flag-flying Supreme Court. That Supreme Court.

We are in deep doo doo if this ignorant cockroach is elected as president again.

It could be that Trump will be sentenced to home confinement with an ankle monitor. If he is president, confined as he is by states rights, does that mean he can never leave the White House? That, at least, should slow him down from handing out state secrets to our adversaries.

The absurdities are endless. Not the least of which would be a second Trump presidency.